The shaping of metal sheets on modern metal-working machinery is generally carried out automatically and with preprogramming of the machine so that the metal sheet automatically is subjected to a sequency of pressing steps which may bend, deform, stamp, punch or otherwise configure the workpiece to the desired profile.
A disadvantage of earlier machines for this purpose is that during the profiling, i.e. the successive bending operations, the metal sheet must be supported or braced by various auxiliary forces or means. This is especially the case with large and heavy metal plates which are intended to be profiled by a bending press. The handling of metal sheets in these cases is complex and laborintensive.
It has already been proposed to provide a manipulating device for metal plates, especially edge-bending presses and which is capable of handling all of the heavy and cumbersome workpieces which may have had to be manipulated heretofore and especially heavy and large metal sheets and plates under the control of a single worker without auxiliary devices or with auxiliary devices only in particularly difficult cases. Such manipulators can automatically and in minimum time orient the metal sheets in all necessary positions so that various types of edge-bending operations can be carried out.
A manipulator of this type has a pair of rotatable tongs which can cooperate with sheet supports and which can engage the metal sheet laterally. The sheet tongs or pinchers can be movable in three dimensions and to this end a pincer guide is provided which can be moved up and down in a horizontal slide, the latter being mounted on a further slide so as to be shiftable in the horizontal direction with two mutually perpendicular components.